We went into the Cabeza Prieta refuge again today. This time we drove on our own. You need a special permit to drive in. There are only 3 roads, and two of them you need high clearance 4 wheel drive. Beautiful flowers.
If you get out of the car and look close you can see that the desert floor is carpeted with these tiny white 1/2 inch flowers called wooly daisy's ,only about 2 inches tall. More rugged mountains and saguaro.
In another place it is carpeted with desert bladderpod flowers. We had lunch in this saguaro forest.
The sonoran pronghorn is an endangered species. After the drought in 2002 there were only 21 left. They have a captive breeding program here in the refuse. They are smaller and lighter than the antelope farther north. This is a picture of the pronghorns from their sign, I took the pronghorn crossing part of it.
The welcome sign on the edge of town. Our next stop was the historical society museum. It is in the old mission built with Indian labor in 1942. There is a big open pit copper mine nearby and it advanced on the Indian village, so the Indians moved away.
The copper mine is no longer being mined. The overlook visitors center of it was closed today, but we peeked through the fence. This mural of singing cactus is downtown.
Roses John gave me yesterday, what a man! Wildflowers we saw today. Ajo Lily, yellow fringe, cholla cactus buds, a smaller version of mallow.
Desert Christmas cactus, miniature wooly stars, a deep blue flower, ajo lily, blooming cholla, the tiny wooly daisies flowers that carpet the desert.
Sunset over the Ajo Heights RV park. The bus is second from the right. It is a typical tight RV park, but it is very well landscaped. They have a guy out racking the gravel every day and there are lots of plants. Many of them are labeled with the names. The whole town is real cute. The best part of the campground was this hummingbird nest right out side our window in an Ironwood tree. The flying photo is from the visitors center of a Costa hummingbird the one they have in this area, not sure if it is the same one.
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